Portfolio investment

Portfolio investments include transactions in equity securities, such as common stock, and debt securities, such as banknotes, bonds, and debentures.

Portfolio investments are passive investments, as they do not entail active management or control of the issuing company. Rather, the purpose of the investment is solely financial gain, in contrast to foreign direct investment (FDI), which allows an investor to exercise a certain degree of managerial control over a company. For international transactions, equity investments where the owner holds less than 10% of a company's shares are classified as portfolio investments. These transactions are also referred to as "portfolio flows" and are recorded in the financial account of a country's balance of payments.